Days after Donald Trump’s claims, India clarifies ‘no commitments’ to tariff cuts: Report

The Indian government said that it has “not committed” to slashing import duties on US products, days after President Donald Trump announced that New Delhi had agreed to “cut their tariffs way down”, as reported by the Times of India.

Trump has upended global trade only weeks into his second term, targeting friends and foes alike.

He has also blamed all trading partners of “unfair” practices, and has announced reciprocal tariffs on many countries, including India, to begin from next month.

Trump once again railed at India's “massive tariffs” last week.

“You can't sell anything into India, it is almost restrictive,” Trump said.

Also Read: Trump tariffs: Is the US president doomed to repeat history?

“They have agreed, by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done,” he added.

But the Indian government told a parliamentary panel that “no commitments had been made to the US on the issue,” a report in The Times of India newspaper said Tuesday.

The government “has sought time until September to address the issue that is being repeatedly flagged by the American president,” it added.

India's commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal “said that India and the US were working towards a mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement, focusing on long-term trade cooperation instead of merely seeking immediate tariffs adjustments”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the White House last month, has a well-established rapport with Donald Trump, with the latter acknowledging a "special bond" with the Indian leader. Modi stated that the world's largest and fifth-largest economies would soon work on a "mutually beneficial trade agreement," which is expected to be finalized very soon.

The United States is a key market for India's information technology and services sectors, while in recent years, Washington has made billions of dollars in new military hardware sales to New Delhi.

There are also talks that Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of heads of state from the Quad, a four-way coalition of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.

(With inputs from AFP)

(This is a developing story)